Posts Tagged ‘Entebbe’

In between the road trips to the north and a few free moments of chilling out in the apartment, I also saw a lot of Kampala and neighbouring Entebbe. Too much to write here so the following is just a snapshot of time well spent in a fantastic city.

Everything is congested, the city teems with people, vehicles, and dust. There are usually 12 things heading for the same spot at any given time – cars, bikes, motorbikes, pedestrians; the victor comes out on top in a battle of the wills, but everyone gets to where they’re going eventually. You walk through the covered second-hand market where shoes pile from floor to rafter and people sit in the limited free space they can find. Riding public transit means first finding your taxi among the mass of vehicles then squishing yourself between them to get into the packed one you want. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long time coming but I finally set off for my ‘first’ trip to Africa to visit Uganda and Rwanda. (Yes, I’ve been to Morocco before but more on that later.) After my flight got cancelled due to the plane having 2 flat tires (no, planes don’t carry spares and oddly airports don’t really either), I finally touched down 14 hours later than planned in Entebbe, a town about 35km south of Kampala. So this is how it goes with Ugandans – you become friends with one of them somewhere else in the world. They tell their friends and family back home about you, and all of a sudden you have all these new friends and family to call your own. When I touched down in Entebbe, I didn’t ‘know’ the people who were picking me up; I knew about them and had communicated with one a few times by email, but had no idea what they looked like or even all their names. And yet, when I came out of the baggage claim after midnight, there they were with flowers and hugs and warm greetings. That’s how it started and that’s how it continued right up to the end, minus the flowers. Read the rest of this entry »